Nightmares plagued Silas that night. He dreamed he was holding the heart, its red pulse beating between his fingers. Soleil was on her knees in front of him. “You stole my heart, Silas Flynn!” Everything burst into flames. As the world around them burned, Soleil looked him in the eye and said, “She’s not what she seems.” Then the dream shifted to Meredith’s face as she pulled the trigger. Once, twice, three times. Iron bullets. When had she loaded iron bullets?

She’s not what she seems.

“Hey, sleepyhead.” Silas woke to Meredith hovering over him. “It’s almost noon. Is the balm working? How do you feel?” She kissed him on the forehead.

He rubbed his bandaged hands together, grabbed a loose edge and started unraveling. His skin was pink but whole. He bent and straightened his fingers, testing the new skin. “Doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“Good.”

Silas stared at her for a moment, still shaken by his nightmare. “Can I ask you something?” he said softly.

“Sure. What’s on your mind?”

“Why did you shoot her?”

Her eyebrows dipped in confusion. “Soleil? She was trying to steal the heart and was about to burn you alive. Why do you think? I was saving your life.”

“But you shot her with iron bullets. Three times, even though the first seemed pretty effective. When did you load iron bullets? We’ve been using silver.”

“I heard her talking to you, and I had a bad feeling.” She tapped his bed rail with her pinky. “I’m a supernatural detective, same as you. I loaded the iron bullets because I thought I might need them. And as for shooting her three times—you were a burned, bloody mess. I got a little overexcited to save your life.” She stroked her fingers through the side of his hair.

“Why have I never met you before? I mean, I knew your father. You say you’ve been to Rivergate, but I can’t remember ever seeing you or your mother.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. We never ran into each other. And I never shifted there because I’m a fox, not a wolf. It’s only my mother and me, and she’s been in a depression since my dad was murdered. She’s traveling now, which is why I didn’t introduce you. By the goddess, what is this about?”

“I feel like you’re hiding something from me. Like I don’t really know you.”

She huffed. “Don’t know me? We’ve stayed up talking every night since we met. You know me better than my therapist.”

“What are you keeping from me?”

A shadow crossed her features, gone as swiftly as it came. If he hadn’t been a detective, he doubted he’d have noticed it at all. But he was a detective, and Meredith was hiding something.

Meredith parted her lips to respond when an alarm blared. The lights in the hall began to flash, and a crowd of doctors and nurses stomped past the open door. Code blue. Code blue. Room 213, blared a voice over the loudspeaker.

“That’s Soleil’s room.” Meredith rushed into the hall.

“Wait!” Still sore, Silas pushed his aching body out of bed, hobbling into the throng of doctors and nurses. It wasn’t hard to find the room. A crowd had gathered outside the door. A curtain of blue and green uniforms worn by equally colorful fae blocked the wall of windows along 213.

By the time Silas reached the hubbub, it was clear something had gone terribly wrong. A uniformed officer he recognized from the CCPD, Brighton was his name, hovered near the door as a tiny blue man stood on a stool and pressed an octagonal panel to Soleil’s chest. There was a flash of light. The heart-rate monitor pinged, a jagged peak forming on the display. The doctors turned their faces toward the machine, frowning when the peak flattened once again.

“More fire lily, doctor?” a green nurse with gossamer wings asked.

“It won’t help. The iron levels in her blood are too far advanced.” He placed two tapered fingers below her right collarbone, where Silas understood her second heart to be. And then he waited.

Soleil’s normally sunny complexion was ashen, her blond hair turned black at the roots, her eyes sunken into her skull in a way that looked fake as if she was wearing Halloween makeup.

The blue doctor wiped tears from his eyes. “I must ask everyone to evacuate the room.” The staff scattered, their arms laden with equipment. They seemed to be stripping the area of everything that wasn’t nailed down.

“What’s going on?” Silas pushed through the crowd, a salmon swimming upstream, and forced his way into the glass chamber that was room 213.

“I’m sorry sir. It isn’t safe here. You must leave the room.” The doctor placed a gentle hand on his elbow. “She’s dying.”

A painful lump formed in Silas’s throat and his next words came out as unintelligible squeaks. “No. She can’t be.”

“She is dying.” The doctor touched his elbow. “Celestial fae, like the stars they are from, do not go gently.”

“Let me say good-bye.” Silas’s shoulders slumped.

“Quickly.”

Silas approached Soleil. He tried to take her hand but the skin of her extremities had turned black and burned as if liquid magma surged beneath her skin. “I wanted things to be different,” he said. “I loved you once. You didn’t deserve this.”

Tears pricked the corners of his eyes, but he did not cry, couldn’t, whether by the heat in the room or his pride. He leaned over and pressed his lips to hers.

The kiss burned. Even though he did it quickly, only a peck, he might as well have kissed a hot iron.

“You must leave, Mr. Flynn.” The blue doctor tugged at his hand. “We have to seal the door!” His small size was no match for Silas’s stature or strength, but it didn’t matter. Silas followed willingly, the heat driving him from the room.

Once he was in the hall, the blue doctor closed the glass door and turned a giant wheel, steam venting above their heads. There was a suctioning sound, and a light above the door blinked from red to green.

“Vacuum seal is complete, doctor,” a bright pink nurse said.

Through the glass, Silas watched as fiery black magma swallowed Soleil’s face and then her hands. The blanket over her body burst into flames and her flesh expanded, her body inflating like a balloon. The bed incinerated but her body did not fall. It hovered like a planet at the center of a void. Anything that resembled the Soleil Silas had known was gone, replaced by a sphere of liquid fire. What was left of her exploded, pushing out against the glass. The containment gave a menacing groan. Red light and bits of rock tapped the windows like storming hail, then collapsed in on itself, compressing into something dark and dense and completely devoid of life.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” the doctor said, avoiding eye contact as he hurried toward his next patient.

Silas wiped under his eyes and searched the gathered crowd for Meredith, but she was gone. His phone rang.

“Is it true?” Grateful asked.

“Yes. She’s dead.”

“We’ve got to get the book.”

Silas turned in a circle, searching the crowd. No Meredith. “I’ll meet you at the bordello.”

* * *

As soon as Silas saw the door of Maison des Étoilles hanging open, he knew something was way off. The door was never left open, even in perfect weather. Breaking into a run, he climbed the steps to the bordello. There was no one at the reception desk, but as he passed into the hall, he heard a moan. Backing up, he crept toward the sound and found Astrial collapsed behind the desk, a bloody gash near her temple.

“Astrial!” Silas knelt beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Her eyes fluttered. “I’m okay. By the goddess, Silas, something is wrong with Soleil.”

He paused. Of course there was something wrong with Soleil. She was dead. But he couldn’t bring himself to say so. Instead, he stared blankly at the celestial fae.

“She came through the door a few minutes ago and pushed me so hard I banged my head on the corner of the desk. It happened so fast. She seemed really angry. Do you know what happened?”

Silas stiffened, his jaw tightening to the point of pain. “Soleil was here?”

“Is here, I think. She pushed me down and stormed to her room.”

Helping her to a seated position, Silas stood and turned toward Soleil’s room. “Wait here,” he said to her. He strode forward, drawing his gun. Soleil’s door was closed, but light filtered through the crack. A shadow passed. Someone was in there.

Silently, he released a slow, even breath through pursed lips and reached for the doorknob, Glock steady in his right hand. With a kick, he flung the door open, ready for anything.

“Silas, thank the goddess you’re here.” Meredith stood by a gaping hole in the marble floor. An empty hole. “There’s something we need to talk about. Look at this.” She pointed toward a puddle of goo, like a smear of blood-tinged petroleum jelly, on the floor near her feet.

“What are you doing here?” Silas demanded.

“Someone stole the book. We have to figure out who—”

“How did you know about the book?”

Meredith looked confused. “We talked about it with Jason and Selene.”

“No. We didn’t talk about it. I talked about it with Jason and Selene. You weren’t in the room.”

“Silas, lower your gun. What’s wrong with you?”

“Are you a skinwalker?”

“My mother is a skinwalker. I’m a shifter. I told you—”

“So you can only turn into a fox?”

“Yes. You know that. Why are you yelling?”

“Then why did Astrial think Soleil pushed her down and came back here, when Soleil is dead, and the only person standing here is you?”

“I have no idea. There was no one at the door when I arrived. I let myself back here. By then, whoever took the book was gone. Wait? Someone disguised themselves as Soleil? It must have been Alex.”

“How would Alex know Soleil was dead?”

“How should I know?” She raised her hands slightly. “Lower your weapon.”

“You knew Soleil was dying. You left the hospital to come here without speaking with me first. Why didn’t you wait for me?”

“Because I knew that Alex wouldn’t wait. What are you implying?”

He stepped forward, his gun pointed at her head. “Did you kill Soleil in order to get the book?”

Meredith shook her head and spread her hands. “You know it wasn’t me. Look at me, do I have the book?”

She didn’t. He wanted to believe her. Against his better judgment, he lowered his gun, then raised it again half-heartedly.

“You show up here out of nowhere and become my partner. Who are you really? Why did Soleil say you weren’t who you say you are?”

“I have no idea why Soleil said what she did. I am Meredith Turner, daughter of Grayson and Olivia Turner of Crescent Moon pack.” She took a step toward the door.

“I have to take you in,” he said. “Soleil is dead and you pulled the trigger.”

Meredith shook her head. “I can’t go with you. You don’t understand.”

“I came as soon as I could,” Grateful called from the hallway. Silas glanced at the witch for a fraction of a second. It was a fraction of a second too long.

A red blur bolted between his legs and past Grateful who leapt back and flattened herself against the wall. Meredith, in her fox form, raced down the hall. Silas aimed. He had a clear shot, but he hesitated, unable to bring himself to pull the trigger. She skidded around the corner toward the exit. He forced himself to aim again. This time he fired. His bullet barely missed the fox and lodged in the wood floor. Astrial’s screams pierced the corridor.

“What the hell?” Grateful yelled.

Silas dodged around Grateful. “Meredith is helping Alex!” He ran for the foyer. By the time he reached Astrial, the fox was gone.

“It happened so fast. I would have stopped her Silas, honest. I wasn’t expecting it. I’m sorry.” Astrial pressed a rag to her bleeding head.

“It’s not your fault.”

Grateful sidled up to him, staring out the open door. “Meredith is helping Alex? It can’t be true.”

He looked at her then and noticed she’d been crying. He wiped a stray tear from the witch’s cheek. For the first time, it hit him that Soleil was dead. Gone. His chest felt heavy.

“I can’t believe she’s dead,” Grateful whispered. “Soleil was a bridesmaid at my wedding. She gave me a hand-embroidered baby blanket at my baby shower not two weeks ago. She was one of my best friends.” The powerful witch rubbed circles over her belly, suddenly looking vulnerable and unbelievably sad.

“Mine too,” he said. “Mine too.” He pulled Grateful into a hug, then prepared himself to break the news to Astrial.